How to Animate Objects and the Camera

In Harmony, you can animate objects by drawing them on their individual layer, then positioning them at different locations on different keyframes across the timeline, creating a motion path. The same principle can be applied to the scene's camera, since it is a layer itself.

Animating a Layer

You can create a motion path directly on layers (animated layers).

You can control and define a trajectory using several different parameters, including:

X, Y and Z positions (3D Path or Separate Positions)

Angle (rotation)

Skew

X and Y Scales

3D objects and 3D-enabled layers also have these extra paramaters:

Euler Angle or Quaternion Angle (when 3D option is enabled)

Z Scale (when 3D option is enabled)

Harmony keeps track of the animation by storing each parameter of each layer in their own function curve. When you add a keyframe to a layer, a keyframe is created on each of these functions, and transformations done on a layer via the Camera view are translated into coordinates which are then stored in those functions. It is possible to edit these functions individually using the Function view, but that is rarely necessary, as Harmony provides easy-to-use tools for visually controlling trajectories and timing in the Camera and Timeline views.

If your layer has a parent peg and you want to animate the drawing layer directly, make sure the Peg Selection Mode is disabled in the Tool Properties view.

In the Tools toolbar, enable the Animate mode. This allows the Transform tool to affect the position and size of a layer at the current keyframe only, whereas it would otherwise affect the layer's position and size throughout the whole scene.

In the Timeline view, go to the first frame.

From the top menu, select Animation and make sure the Stop-Motion Keyframe option is unchecked. This will make it so Harmony automatically creates the animation between the animation keyframes you create.

Select the cell where you want to create your first keyframe

To create your first keyframe, do one of the following:

In the Timeline toolbar, click the Add Keyframe button.

Right-click and select Add Keyframe.

Press F6.

A keyframe is created on the first frame of the Timeline view.

In the Camera view, select the element to animate and move it to its first position.

In the Timeline view, go to the frame on which you want to set the second position.

Select the cell where you want to create your second keyframe. right-click on the selection and select Insert Keyframe.

The second keyframe appears in the Timeline view, along with a line going from your first keyframe to your second keyframe. This indicates that every frame in-between will be animated by Harmony.

In the Camera view, move the element to its second position.

In the Timeline view, select the first frame to rewind to the beginning of your animation.

In the Playback toolbar, click on the Play button to preview your animation.

NOTEIf your scene has 3D objects, or if you animate layers on the Z axis, you may want to preview your animations from the Top, Side or Perspective views during playback. However, playback is disabled by default in those view. To enable them, from the top menu, select Play > Enable Playback > Top View, Side View or Perspective View.

Animating the Camera

A scene's camera can be manipulated and animated just like any other layer. It is listed in the Timeline view and you can use the same tools and selection modes to offset or animate it. However, the camera layer itself is static, which means it keeps the same position and angle throughout the whole scene. In order to be able to animate the camera, you need to connect it to a peg layer, which can be animated, and which will directly affect the position and angle of the camera.

You can animate your camera movements directly in the Camera view. Alternatively, you can use the Side or Top views, which can be especially useful when animating a camera in a multiplane scene, where each layer is positioned at a different distance from the camera, or if your scene contains 3D models.

By default, new scenes do not have a camera layer. To add a camera layer, do one of the following:

From the top menu, select Insert > Camera.

From the Layers toolbar, click the Add Layers button and select Camera.

From the Node Library view, select a Camera node and drag it to the Node view.

A new camera layer is added to the scene and appears in the Timeline view.

In the Timeline view, select the Camera layer.

From the Layers toolbar, click the Add Peg button.

A Peg layer appears directly above the Camera layer and is automatically attached to it. The new Peg layer takes the name of the camera layer with the suffix -P added to indicate that it is its Peg layer.

If the new Peg layer did not appear directly above the camera, you may have clicked elsewhere in the scene, which deactivated the layer on which you want to add the Peg layer. To fix this:

Select the Camera layer and drag and drop it under the new Peg layer. Or delete the misplaced Peg layer, select the Camera layer and click the Add Peg button again.

From the Node Library view, select a Peg node and drag it to the Node view. Then connect the peg’s output port to the camera’s input port.

You can also press Ctrl + P (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + P (macOS) to create a peg and connect it to the camera, or select the Camera node and press Ctrl + P (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + P (macOS) to create a peg.